


interpose

by mardia



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-10
Updated: 2010-09-10
Packaged: 2017-10-11 15:30:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/113912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mardia/pseuds/mardia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>interpose: to step in between two parties at variance.</i> Gwen POV. (Written for the <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/picfor1000/">picfor1000</a> challenge: and my prompt is <a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/mardia/pic/00029f6c">here</a>.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	interpose

Gwen wasn't _looking_ for him, exactly. But if she were to happen upon Arthur while she was aimlessly wandering through the corridors, she had already planned out what she was going to say.

After all, this was far, far too important for her to waste time stumbling over her words.

Despite the little plan in the back of her mind, she was still rather startled when she finally did find Arthur standing at a window in a corridor that led to nowhere in particular. Gwen stood there for a moment, watching him, for he looked deep in thought, and his face had none of the horrible tight anger in it that had been a constant with him for the last few weeks.

He looked like himself again, and not the sullen half-stranger that avoided Morgana and Gwen, that growled at Gaius and would not even _look_ at—

Gwen cleared her throat softly. "My lord?"

He swiftly turned to look towards her, and the brief flutter of surprise in his face hardened again into the mask she'd come to know all too well. "Yes?" he asked coldly, and Gwen wondered all over again if she was being a fool to even try, when Morgana had failed—no, when Arthur had shut her out so thoroughly that Morgana hadn't even had the _chance_ to try and get Arthur to see reason. And she was his kin, and Gwen was only a servant—

And yet Gwen had been able to do this before, had been able to speak her mind and not fear reprisal—for Arthur was not his father, could never be his father, and had settled that for good when he'd agreed to keep silent about Merlin, even as he was in the grips of a fury that Gwen had never seen in him before.

"When are you going to forgive him?" It came out as a half-whisper instead of the calm challenge that she'd wanted it to be, but that was all right, at least she had _said_ it, at last.

Arthur's face flashed for a moment, and then he was turning away from her, the light from the candles hitting his face as he did so. He did not respond, but neither did he tell her to shut up, or that she was out of line, or even ordering her to go away, and that emboldened her enough to say, to plead, "Merlin has saved your life a dozen times over—if he broke the law, he did it in service of Camelot, out of love for _you_—"

The lighting here was strong enough that she could see Arthur's jaw clenching at her words. But she was not here just to get a reaction out of him—she wanted him to speak, because if Arthur would only _talk_ then they could get into a debate, and then finally perhaps she could make him see reason.

And thank the gods, he did, finally, gritting out, "It makes no difference. I will not have a man in my service I cannot trust."

If the situation weren't so dire, if the last few weeks hadn't been so miserable for them all, Gwen could have almost laughed at how ridiculous that was. This was Merlin they were talking about, Merlin with his bright smile and curious nature and the way he loved them all, without reservation. "Of course you can trust him—it's _Merlin_, for heaven's sake." It was on the tip of her tongue, to call him ungrateful, unreasonable, but she held it back. "You cannot honestly believe that he is a threat, not after all the good he's done."

"It's not about what I believe," Arthur said flatly. "It is about what I do or do not know to be true. He has lied, a thousand times over, to me and to my father. His word has proven to be worthless. Why the devil should I have a man like that in my service?"

Gwen had had enough. She stepped forward, suddenly furious, and snapped out, "Because his loyalty to you is beyond anything I have ever seen, and more than you deserve if this is how you are to repay him—"

Arthur's face twisted, and he snarled back, "I'm only repaying the injuries I have already received. Why should I give him my faith, when he never gave me his?"

The silence after that was awful, and Arthur's face—instead of being hard and unreadable, it was all too open, all too easy to read, and Gwen saw it all then, and remembered that horrible moment when Arthur had realized that she and Morgana had known of Merlin's powers, had known for months, and had hidden it from him just as Merlin and Gaius had.

There was a torch hanging almost directly above Arthur's head, and now that Gwen had stepped closer, it threw enough light that she could see how—how tired Arthur looked, how worn. There were faint shadows underneath his eyes that couldn't blamed upon the lighting, and now that the anger had finally faded from him, there was nothing but weariness in his face.

"You have to try and forgive him for that," Gwen said at last, her throat aching for Arthur, for Merlin. She wanted to press her hand to his arm, to his cheek, try to give him some comfort, and if only he were anyone else, she might actually dare to.

Arthur looked away from her and says, his voice still carrying an edge to it, "I really don't."

Gwen managed to smile a little, somehow, and said, "You know better than that." And when Arthur looked at her, despite all the lingering hurt and anger she could still see in him, it was just as obvious he knew the truth in her words.

Still he struggled. "It's not that simple."

"Yes it is," she insisted, finally taking the plunge and letting her hand rest against his cheek. "Arthur. It _is_."


End file.
